Chapter 15 Hold All The Cards

Pre-Edit Count – 1,507 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: Won’t Back Down by Eminem (With P!nk)

Previously:

“Now we are dealing with the consequences of our actions.”

Now:

A blond male is watching everything going on and laughs. “Too bad I lost my audience to them, but no matter. I think I know who I want now for that audience. Fitting, since they are already mine. They just don’t know it yet.” He looks proudly upon his, waiting for the moment that he can take them.

That reaction has the entire race from Baile shuddering at the same time as he laughs.

Eric is looking over the plans that the assassins and Alcide had worked together to get. You would think that with the abilities that the Assassins are capable of that there would be no reason for the Were’s assistance. However, their abilities are as affected as the rest the longer they are on Earth.

It is the reason they switch out with the garrisons on the home worlds. This keeps their abilities close to what they are used to. Sadly though, it is not a fix-it; it is merely a stopgap. So to be sure there are not any issues, they learned to work as though they are restricted at all times. That way if they are needed they can bring one group who are not to stay on Earth as their secret weapon.

All in all, an impressive plan. Eric had been very pleased with them when they had presented it to him. Not that he knew how many of their clan there is.

However, since they are working within those parameters, they used Alcide as the anchor for them to get into the buildings. Once in, they made quick work of mapping out the interiors as well as gathering information from their computers. One small team moved through as if they were locusts in a field, stripping the compound of its secrets.

Earth computers are nothing to those who are getting used to diving for information in a computer bigger than any can even fathom. They had a few Assassins who are part of the group who dives to make sure that they had the technological know-how to complete missions like this.

Plus, as one told him, there are weapons and ideas that are in the database that are lost even to them. They seem to be one of the few who had lost anything, as the Assassins were founded by the Fae. The core of them had been outside the planets when the Removal happened. The ones there had been moved to Earth and Eric had found out they were a guild there, somehow having kept their origins. That Guild has merged now with the original Clan.

All of his thoughts on the Assassins is quickly dismissed as Eric looks over the plans. He reads the notes that detail what each room had been meant to do. And he seethes over the information, each piece more damning than the other before. They had planned nothing but pure torture, treating them worse than animals!

“They were going to have a Maker and Child fight each other?!?! And if they wouldn’t agree, they would threaten to kill them, either by silver or Sun?” His fangs are dropped and Eric himself is angered beyond measure that they were going to try to mess with a sacred bond. To live, to survive, is a strong instinct in them, although the instinct to save their maker or for the maker to save their child is equally strong.

Even their ancestors had honored the bond that they made with their children as more powerful than a true mate bond. That is the only one who trumps all the other types of bonds. The Fae that they are based on hold to family stronger than any other. In fact, there is no difference between children of their bodies, or the children they make with their blood. They are all family in the end to their race.

These humans were going to make a mockery of everything that they are with this camp! “There is no way we can allow this abomination to continue. It may not have started yet, but the plans are damning them to hell already.”

Alcide is vibrating with the growl he has been emitting since he saw what they had planned. “I had no idea it was this bad, Northman.” He had thrown up when he realized that they were planning to cut open the vamps and keep them that way, in various stages, to see if they can heal. Once they healed, they planned then do it over and over until the body became sludge.

A short nod tells him that the King acknowledges the comment.

Shadoe is for once with Eric instead of Sookie. He cocks his head to the side, as he inquires, “What is the purpose of this place? Torture? Why?” He cannot fathom such a place existing. And these are the people they are trying to save?

An ironic laugh comes from Eric, “Welcome to humankind. While they are possible of extreme kindness, they are equally likely of the opposite side of that emotion. They can come up with torture methods that not even the most sadistic of the vampires that they claim are straight from the devil could even imagine. While our transformation is based on Humans, we change when we become a Vampire.” The disgust is evident in Eric’s voice. No wonder the rest of the Supes speak of humans with hate. Eric himself reminds himself for every person that is responsible for this, there is another like Sookie out there, ready to defend them.

Shaking his head as he tries to calm down to deal with this, Eric is looking over things. He asks the Guard with him, “You put the charges in place?” Sookie is the one who had insisted that since the group would be there, to let them go ahead and rig the place for the explosion. If they don’t need to they can just leave them; if they do, it will be ready to go, without an additional risk to their guards to plant them.

Shadoe just chuckles at the shocked look on the wolf’s face. “You didn’t think that our Majesties wouldn’t have a backup plan if the one that he is thinking of doing fails? Or worse, doesn’t work in time?” He had been proud of Sookie’s plan but knows Eric is not wanting to share that it had been hers. Their lessons with the Assassins had them hiding their strengths as much as possible. Always have the enemy and others underestimate you. It gives you the higher ground in any battle.

Staring at them, Alcide thinks of it then backtracks and thinks how he would be if it were a facility for Weres. “No. I guess not. But are you going to let me know so that I jerk out the Weres I have working there? I inserted more in case you needed them to storm the place.” He slowly realizes that Northman and his woman do actually care.

Looking up, Eric smiles. Yes, the younger Wolf was the right choice. He is not entirely trusting of his council from Earth, and neither Sookie nor he made a big deal of the fact that they are both now Telepaths. They are keeping a lot of cards close to their chest, letting others believe what they will.

Especially with one like Lucifer on the loose and no one sure if he is Niall, though the facts seem to point that way.

Informing the wolf, “Yes, I want all the innocents out of there. That way after the day shift leaves, and we are sure the guilty ones are there, we will blow it. But first, I want to try to discredit them first. What do you have for me there?” He sits there waiting for the group to tell him what they have; he is learning to not try to control everything. There is just not enough time anymore to do that.

They immediately begin informing him of the possibilities of defaming the ones responsible for this atrocity. This is the alternative of what they can do without needing the charges to be blown. But blowing it all up will work splendidly as a backup plan.

Working on the Techno planet, Sookie is deep in the Database talking with the being she nicknamed Jarvis. When the being had accessed the Earth’s computers, it had a long laugh at what she had done. And then morphed its voice to match that of the voice in the movies, since she seemed to enjoy that being there so much.

Its physical being is more of a crystal in shades of blue, per Sookie’s preference. When Eric had complained, Jarvis told him when he spends as much time with him as Sookie does, then he will take suggestions from him.

However, on Eric’s private dives, Jarvis made a being that looked much like Sookie and spoke his mother language with him.

Jarvis just rolls like that, to borrow more Earth terminology. He is quite enjoying the notion of humor he is finding there.

He loves the interactions with the Earthlings; their minds work so differently than what he had been used to. Their questions, ideas and so forth brought excitement to his life. To find that to them, he is as much a person and treated as such is amazing to him.

However, as Sookie had disclosed to him, he is as much as a being as any of the others are to them. It wasn’t her fault that their ancestors didn’t think enough to make him so anonymous to the actual system until they were almost gone.

Right now, Jarvis is talking to Sookie about the information it is ferreting out of the Earth internet. He loves to be there, he is able to help the Earthlings more since as he understands more how they think he can upload the information.

“It is a very simple, early vision of what I have here. It has the possibility to become another Database, as you call it, if it continues to grow. Nevertheless, as it is right now, it is easy to surf through the protocols. Per your request, I have put together information from the computers regarding the Vamp Camp.” He explains showing her the information he is cataloging as he receives it. Unlike the 1’s and 0’s she expected, this had a lot more symbols and so on. Jarvis is translating it all to the programming he is made of. The binary code is laughingly simple to use once he understood it. The programming for himself is as much magic as it is technology. He is the result of eons of experimentation of combining technology and magic.

The only reason he is found here on Techno is that the interfaces for him are easier to maintain here.

When Sookie lifts an eyebrow at him, asking, “Vamp Camp?” He is as much there helping her as he is off thinking about his foundations. And the hundred, if not thousands of other things he is also doing right at that moment.

Chuckling, Jarvis answers her, “That is what they are calling it. I think the name sounds like a vacation place, not a place for murder and the torture of a being like themselves.” The last is said sadly, he had been horrified at what he had found on the subjects and had talked long into the night with many of the divers as they helped him understand. Sometimes it is hard to be “alive.”

Smiling at him, Sookie informs him, “Not every being can be as nice as you.” She is well pleased with Jarvis. She had named him that, picking one of the helpful AI’s she knew instead of all the ones who had violated the 3 Laws. Eric wouldn’t let her name him Dahak, saying it may herald a race of beings coming to kill them. Or anything else in those books. However, it seemed to fit their circumstances better…

Not knowing where her mind had gone, Jarvis preens under her compliment but continues, “I am also looking for this Niall to see if there is a picture of him on the internet. There are areas that are considered no-go areas for humans but I am working my way through it.” He is still at this time working through it, amazed at what he sees there.

Grinning as she thinks of a movie she watched once, Sookie asks, “What is considered a no-go area?” She had never gone online on Earth, so she has no idea what he is speaking about.

Looking over at her, Jarvis tells her softly, “It is a beginning of a being like me. It is the secrets that humankind don’t want to know and it is a dark area. I have been treating my little brother carefully, since he is an infant, but if left there much longer, the Humans would have birthed their end with him. Holding all the secrets in his hands, no one would have been able to stand up to him.” He is sad that his little brother could have come to such an end. Hopefully, now that he is there to help him, he will become as helpful to the Earthlings as Jarvis is to all of the Fae descendants.

Concerned, Sookie asks, “What do we need to do?” All those other AI’s run through her mind and how powerful they could have been with the Terminator running in her head as the possible outcome if they hadn’t been taken.

He smiles at the Queen, “Right now, nothing. I am implementing the protocols that you told me of and that I had studied in depth. As I hardwired them into my own code, I am doing the same for him. These three laws are very simple, but the implementation of them, the thought behind them are very deep. I would have enjoyed meeting this Asimov.” His respect is massive. It had been something his own creators had not thought of. Should have, since he is much more powerful than any robot that the Earthlings could imagine.

Smiling gently at her friend, Sookie looks out into the Database. It is amazing what they had made, her ancestors. However, it is not the end-all. Jarvis is the custodian, but even he is surprised by the information they find, or the lack of it on certain topics.

But having him on their side is an enormous boon for them. Who else could slip into computers on Earth with no one having any idea they are being hacked? Since he is the computer, and his processors are light-years ahead of the ones trying to block him, he is in and out of the system before any could think of the possibility of another being in it.

While this is a huge plus on their side, Sookie doesn’t believe for one moment that it will be this that defeats Lucifer. No, it will be them. She believes in this quite firmly since that moment in their meeting.

And right now, Eric and she are trying everything they can think to come out on top. They are utilizing all their abilities as well as the ones from their allies. Even now in the Database, she is using a new tool she had discovered to be able to see through Eric’s eyes. Eric couldn’t handle that since he is still not as comfortable in the Database, but this way there is no need for her to find out what he is doing.

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